Chinese industry authorities have ordered local governments to gradually reduce the scale of bitcoin production, by first controlling the power supply to bitcoin mines, The Paper.cn reported on Jan. 4, citing unique sources.

Local governments were also asked to report their work on a regular basis to the Internet Financial Risk Special Rectification Work Leadership Team Office, the country’s online financial risk regulator.

The People’s Bank of China, the country’s central bank, has reportedly asked local governments to control electricity supply to bitcoin mines as a first step to scale down bitcoin mining.

In mid-November 2017, the online financial risk regulator held a special meeting to discuss ways to close down some bitcoin mines, The Paper reported.

In the same month, an affiliated electricity company of the State Grid in Sichuan released a notice, asking all its power stations to stop powering bitcoin production. Those stations had allegedly put residential electricity supply after bitcoin mines, the company pointed out.

The move was aimed at reasonably guiding bitcoin miners to stop their businesses, since all bitcoin exchange platforms have been shutdown in an earlier nationwide campaign, said staff with the regulators.

The general trend is to gradually regulate and reduce the scale of bitcoin mines, and to shut down non-standard ones, said a source familiar with the central bank, clarifying rumors that all the mines will be shutdown, China Securities.com reported.